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Going abouts my buisness on my Imac osx, dropped my mouse and it seemed to click up a grey screen whichs asks for my name and password. My apple ID and password are not working so I just restart it but not it comes up everytime on restart. About an hour before I set up firevault but it said it was unsuccesful however it gave me a recovery.

- Too many "beachballs", read this: Beachballs- Computer seems slower than it used to? Read this for some slow computer tips: Speedup- Almost full hard drive? Some solutions. Out of Space- Apple Battery Info. Battery

I bought the Imac used about 4 years ago. Its only ever had the one account. I think im going to cut my losses and just sell it as spares and repairs and get a new laptop as ive wanted a laptop the last year anyway.

I dont have a start up disk and the COMMAND R combo is not working on start up for me to reformat it. Basically I just want to make sure everything is deleted of mine ready for someone with their own start up disk to install and set up

I think you may be a bit hasty there. It would be a lot easier to help you, however, if you could tell us 1) the model (and generation, in particular) of the iMac you are using, and 2) what version of OS X you were last running on it.

I am asking because, assuming you have upgraded the computer to run on any system equal to or later than Lion, and have purchased that system with your Apple-ID, you might download the installer from a friend's (or Apple Store's) Mac, create a bootable USB stick, boot and reinstall from there. Assuming the file vault encryption was unsuccessful, you might even be able to retain your data. Otherwise, you would have to wipe the disk before the reinstall, and would lose your data. I hope you do have a backup.

If you are still running the original OS X (which should be Leopard or Snow Leopard, based on the "used 4 years ago"), then unfortunately you would need a disk to reinstall. While the vendor should have provided you with the disk(s), if he or she hasn't, Snow Leo is still available from Apple Support for around 20 €.

By the way, if you are planning on selling the computer, bear in mind that according to the Apple T&Cs, you are only allowed to sell it with the original OS X version or last version you bought physical disks for; in any case, since any newer versions would be linked to your Apple ID, if you decide to put Lion or newer on it, you should abort the install process before the registration.

hi schlagi thanks for getting back and forgive me I am not technically savvy,

its a 2007 model no A1224 and I was using LION

There was nothing of great importance other then my ITUNES LIBRARY on there which I would love to get back.

Yes I do recall something about something being unsuccesful when I turned on firevault and then on the requested restart I seem to be stuck on this grey screen asking for a name and password I do not know (nor does it have a question mark in the password box to see if there is a password reminder or anything)

The only person who has a mac is my sister, but she has no start up disk for me to reformat she bought it a few months ago and it was all set up from within.

Hi Luke, apologies, I just typed a lengthy reply, only to get logged out of the forum and losing all the text. Please bear with me, I will give you a condensed version only. NOTE: YOU WILL DO ALL THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND CREATING BACKUPS OF ALL THE MACS INVOLVED. YOU MAY LOSE THE DATA ON YOUR IMAC.

In both cases, on your sister's Mac, open the AppStore, log out of her account and into yours. Lion should be visible in the purchased items; if it isn't, go out of purchased items, and hold down the option key when clicking on it again. Lion should now be in the list of purchased items, click on load and lean back, 5GB may take a while. If the installation of Lion should start on your sister's Mac, ABORT IT! Then follow any of the instructions above.

Once done, you can boot your iMac from that stick (again, google should provide you with a host of tutorials, so you may want to search for one that you find suits you best), go ahead and install. More in a second post

EDIT: After this is done, do not forget to change the AppStore Account back to your sister's.

To boot from the stick, switch off your Mac, stick the USB drive in, press power and option keys (left one), wait at least until you hear the gong sound. You should be presented with a choice of available boot drives, including the USB drive. Select this and start from it. See if you can just select your hard drive as install target (this may only replace the bungled system, without data loss); if this does not work, you will need to format the disk. THIS ENTAILS IRREMEDIABLE DATA LOSS OF ALL THAT WAS ON THAT DRIVE! Then install on the freshly formatted drive. You will now have a virgin Mac. More in a third post

If, however, you want to sell your Mac, you will need to inform the buyer that you will not be able to give him or her the original install discs (I understand you do not have them). It then depends if you just sell the Mac without a system on it, or with an aborted Lion installation.

You SHOULD NOT fully install Lion, because the OS will at installation be linked to your ID (and also it would be against Apple T&Cs).

So you can either start from the USB, format hard drive, shut the Mac down, and sell it empty, or - if you know the buyer has purchased Lion - begin the installation as outlined above, and at the moment the Apple ID is requested, shut down the Mac.

Again, all of this is at your peril. English is not my first language, so when in doubt, please feel free to ask, or corroborate through google.

I wanted to mention one thing. A single account definitiely needs to be setup with an install of the Mac OS...but you don't have to setup a password. I do this all the time. So this means that the account has a userid...but no password.

- Nick

- Too many "beachballs", read this: Beachballs- Computer seems slower than it used to? Read this for some slow computer tips: Speedup- Almost full hard drive? Some solutions. Out of Space- Apple Battery Info. Battery